The Marketing Mistakes All Businesses Can Make

Let’s take you back to that moment you first got an idea. An idea that planted in your brain and failed to go anywhere. It grew, it evolved, and suddenly you had the inclination and the drive to start your own business because of that one seedling of an idea. Being passionate about what you do helps, and it can certainly be a huge driving force throughout your business journey. But there are things that every entrepreneur can fail to be a master of, and one of the important ones happens to be marketing.

Marketing is a huge part of your business, you know that as well as anybody. But getting it right can be tricky and now with a more digital focus it can be harder than ever to get your business seen and heard. There are some common marketing mishaps that everyone can be guilty of making. I wanted to highlight some of them for you to do and hopefully offer a quick tip or a resolve to help you overcome it once and for all.

It is important to realise that we live in a digital world where everything seems to be done online these days, and one of the big marketing tools any business has is social media. This can be a big way to get your business seen and in front of people that normally wouldn’t see your business and what you are all about. However the common mishap associated with social media is the fact that businesses do not utilise it enough. It is important to consider having a separate strategy for social media and really think about what you put out there for people to see. You may also want to focus on some of the more popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and growing those audiences collectively.

Thinking you have what it takes to control all aspects

It is so easy to think that you can control every aspect of your business, and collectively you can, but that doesn’t mean to say that you should implement every aspect personally. Good delegation means that you know when to give out responsibility and ultimately when to outsource. That means that for things like marketing, getting a digital agency involved in your strategy and also your website could be the way forward. They can help you with your online visibility and make it their primary mission while you focus on other aspects of your business.

Not having a marketing campaign in place

Going back to basics often means that you need to rethink some of the areas of your business and doing this regularly with your marketing focus could be the right way forward. Often, businesses don’t have a strategy or campaign in place for marketing and this can be your downfall. Think about the hype there’s around Christmas and TV adverts at the moment, that is a separate marketing campaign in itself. Regularly reviewing what you are doing will help you to seize more opportunities. Start off small if it is easier, focusing on one product or service that you wish to promote more than others. Or even just focus on a concept of your business, for example, humanising your business in some way and giving it a voice to be heard digitally and physically.

Being consistent? Yes. Boring? Definitely!

You may be consistent online, updating your status and regularly checking in with your audience. You might have an up to date website and doing well in search engine rankings. Consistency is very important, but are you running the risk of just doing the same thing over and over again? Instead, why not focus on what you say as well as being consistent. Be open-minded to sharing content in different ways like in video format or through images. Maybe step out of the comfort zone and try a Facebook Live or Instagram stories. You never know what kind of reception you get but it could be well worth it to your business.

Forgetting more traditional methods

Finally, we may feel like we live in a digital world but does that mean we are focusing too much on the digital methods and less on the traditional methods? Why shouldn’t we think about marketing through TV or radio anymore? Advertising in the local press or even through mail shots. Some of these older methods do still provide results, and can often be determined by your customer demographic.